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Pacific-Rim Nations Led by U.S. Agree to Historic Trade Deal
A dozen Pacific-rim nations agreed to an historic pact that would cut trade barriers on items ranging from cars to rice, setting up a potentially contentious ratification vote before a skeptical U.S. Congress.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- public policy
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IDB Loans $10M to Paraguay’s Vision Banco to Fund Water, Sanitation Facilities for Low-Income Populations
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a US-based multilateral finance institution that operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, recently approved a loan of USD 10 million to Vision Banco, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Paraguay. The loan will be disbursed from IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority Sector facility, which lends, invests equity, offers technical advice and provides partial guarantees and risk-sharing facilities to “companies, financial intermediaries … [and] non-profits that are willing to engage with the base of the socioeconomic pyramid”[4].
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Partners in Food Solutions Announces New Corporate Partner, Expanded Impact in Africa
An international public-private partnership is expanding its efforts to strengthen Africa’s food system. The Hershey Company is joining Partners in Food Solutions, a Minnesota nonprofit, as its newest corporate partner.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- nutrition
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Target Market Segmentation and Education: Comparing agriculture digital payments systems
Agriculture has such a complicated supply chain that any digital payments programs without the requisite target market segmentation and a robust education approach – that places farmers at the center of consideration – will likely fail. It is essential for farmers to have a comprehensive awareness about the features and benefits of digital payments before they will consider adopting any new way of doing their business.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Making Toilets, Building Communities
Social enterprises like Sanivation and Sanergy are bringing health, safety and hygiene to informal settlements in Kenya, and that means, according to the author, fewer children will die of diarrhea. Plus, these businesses are giving people an opportunity to experience dignified life in a sustainable way.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Health Care
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Why the Aid Model is Perverse (Part 2): Tech startup mWater dreaming of the day health and wealth structures are under local control
mWater CEO Annie Feighery says, "We have to keep doing a better job at getting the word out that digital monitoring can help every single aspect of the aid industry do its job better. There are so very many malthusians out there who say things like, 'Technology is not a solution.' Imagine saying that to a librarian organizing card catalogues in 1995. Technology is the solution."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, Technology
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Grameen Foundation Selected as a Global Resilience Challenge Winner
Grameen Foundation was selected by The Global Resilience Partnership to implement transformative resilience solutions to problems facing smallholder coconut and cocoa farmers in Southeast Asia. A global leader in innovations to help the world's poor, Grameen Foundation was among eight global teams in the Global Resilience Challenge, a multi-stage design competition that received nearly 500 initial applications to address the most difficult resilience challenges. The foundation will now receive up to $1 million to implement its proposed solution in a way that can be scaled and adopted by others in the future.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Creating an Exit Strategy for Aid (Part 1): Nonprofit mWater, in striving to eliminate diarrheal disease, runs like a for-profit Silicon Valley startup
The world met the Millennium Development Goal target for water – doubling the number of improved water sources by 2015 – but that accomplishment won't save lives unless those new water sources are safe. Making sure they are is the goal of a nonprofit tech startup, mWater, that's being run like a for-profit tech startup in Silicon Valley.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, Technology